“Puja Creatives” is an enterprise dedicated to reimagining the gift and souvenir market in Albania. Inspired by personal difficulties in finding suitable and original products, Arjeta Xhomara and Elmira Paloka decided to create a platform where creation and education are at the heart of every product they offer. The first product they have introduced to the market is tote bags. Their plan is to bring other categories of products with the same approach to creativity and concepts by December 2024, such as bookmarks, greeting cards, candles, and coloring books. Starting as a personal endeavor, Puja Creatives aims to become a sustainable and innovative model in the country’s cultural and arts industry. In the interview conducted with them, they shared more about their creations and journey.
When did you decide to found your startup, and what motivates you in this venture?
The idea for founding Puja Creatives started in November 2023, even though its launch was recently in March 2024. The main drive behind bringing such a project to life is the desire to make gifts and souvenirs not only fun but also educational at the same time. Our personal experiences in buying gifts, where we often ended up ordering from non-Albanian brands online, were the starting point.
What are the main challenges you have faced in your early days, and how are you overcoming them?
Puja Creatives is still in its early stages, and consequently, the challenges that almost every startup faces at the beginning are still present for us. Issues such as finding reliable suppliers and diversifying communication channels with the customer are the two main challenges we are dealing with. Despite the fatigue these challenges might cause, we try to treat them as an opportunity to learn and improve various processes within the startup. One challenge worth mentioning is the demand from some customers for customizations, which we do not practice as it goes against Puja Creatives’ mission of creating socially and environmentally impactful products. The solution in this case has been gathering feedback from customers and creating new concepts and collections based on their ideas, thus building a stronger connection with them.
What is your company’s mission and vision?
Through Puja Creatives, we aim to build and promote a deeper connection with values, art, culture, and history while encouraging conscious consumption. Our mission, which also sets us apart from other businesses in this category, is to create meaningful creative products with social and environmental impact.
What values and beliefs guide you in your venture?
We strongly believe in responsibility, sustainability, integrity, and above all, we are guided by creativity. Responsibility for how we serve the customer and approach product quality. Sustainability in the selection of materials for our products to achieve social and environmental impact. Integrity in maintaining relationships with customers, partners, and suppliers. Creativity in every aspect and detail of doing business, from product and service concepts to final communication.
What stage is your startup in, what are you currently doing? What have been the key steps in this journey?
We are still in the product development and market positioning stage, which we like to call the “Start and Experiment” phase, and we are working towards the next phase, “Grow and Stabilize.” Currently, we are working to have clear processes for how we can build and promote a deeper connection with values, art, culture, and history while encouraging the conscious consumption of gifts and souvenirs in Albania.
What solutions do you offer to your customers?
Based on market analysis and identifying customer needs in this product category, as mentioned earlier, our mission is to create meaningful creative products with social and environmental impact. The solution we offer our customers is precisely education through the entertainment that our gifts and souvenirs bring. Some of the products Puja Creatives aims to bring reimagined to the market are tote bags, bookmarks, greeting cards, candles, coloring books, thermoses, etc. In every product we create, we combine the digital world with the artisanal one. The services we expect to introduce soon include planning small creative events such as painting, coloring, sewing, embroidery workshops, book clubs, crafting classes, and other events with cultural and historical character.
How is the change in technology and the market impacting your venture?
We have categorized technology at the top of the list of positive external factors for our startup. Firstly, in every product we create, we combine the digital world with the artisanal one, so technological changes are an opportunity for more creativity and diversity. Secondly, technology has enabled us to address the challenge of not having a physical store, thus diversifying our communication channels with our customers.
What are your plans for future growth and strategies to achieve them?
In these first few months after the launch of Puja Creatives, we have experimented only with one type of product, which is tote bags. Our plan is to introduce other categories of products with the same approach to creativity and concepts by December 2024. The products we are currently working on introducing include bookmarks, greeting cards, candles, and coloring books. Later, we will also present services for organizing creative events.
What makes you happiest in the venture you have started?
Since the moment we started with the idea of creating Puja Creatives, we have had many moments that have made us happy. Moments such as holding the first finalized product, sending the first order to the customer, and the support from family and friends are very motivating. However, what makes us happiest is the feedback we receive from our customers. The fact that we see our vision for building a connection with values, art, culture, and history while encouraging conscious consumption gradually come to life and unfold before us is very rewarding.
What do you aim to achieve specifically in the next 3 years?
We see the next three years as a period of growth and stabilization for Puja Creatives. We aim to establish connections with other businesses in this field, transforming the relationship from competitors to partners. We envision our growth and stabilization in creating an online shopping platform, giving access to our products to customers beyond Albania’s borders.
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